Individuals may often use one or more communications devices, e.g., cell phones, personal data assistants, notebook computers, which often support one or more communications protocols. Such devices often include an interface corresponding to each supported communications protocol, e.g., a CDMA interface for cellular communications, a Bluetooth interface for Bluetooth communications, a USB interface for connection via a USB cable to another device, etc.
While devices may include one or more communications interfaces, as new protocols and/or standards are developed it would be desirable to be able to interact with an existing device, e.g., cell phone, PDA or other device, through one of its existing interfaces. While applications, e.g., software, may be readily loaded onto an existing device, it is not feasible in many cases to replace an existing communications interface or add an additional physical communications interface to support one or more protocols which were not originally supported by a device at the time it was originally deployed.
In view of the difficulty in adding new physical interfaces to existing or deployed devices, in the case of mobile devices, power consumption is often an issue. To conserve power in a mobile communications device it is often desirable to power down an interface when the device does not perceive a need to use the interface. In a powered down state, an interface may not be able to receive or process signals. While some protocols support a mechanism for waking up or reactivating the interface by supplying a particular external signal to the interface, in many cases this is not the case and the interface needs to be powered up, e.g., activated, by the device, e.g., in response to an internal signal or a user provided input, e.g., pressing a button or touching another control input on the device.
In view of the above discussion, it should be appreciated that there is a need for methods and/or apparatus which would allow a communications device, e.g., a mobile communications device, to interact with devices supporting one or more protocols not supported by an interface included in the communications device. It would be desirable if in at least some embodiments, interaction with devices which support a protocol not supported by the communications device could be achieved without requiring an interface being added to the communications device. It would also be desirable if, in at least some embodiments, methods and apparatus allowed a device to power down an interface when it was not being used for communication with another device.